Slept pretty good last night. No one, human or otherwise bothered me. Woke up at 7am to pouring rain, fog sweeping through the canal with a 7mph headwind. So I’ve been taking my time breaking camp, making breakfast and loading the boat back up. I tossed a small handful of blueberries from my yard that were dehydrated into some oatmeal and then attempted some potato pancakes while the berries rehydrated. Pancakes never really browned, but I did forget to pack some cooking oil and water wasn’t cutting it. I’ll try to grab some in the next town. And coffee. I guess I managed to consume my first weeks supply on the drive out from Oregon. more...

On the western end of the canal between Buffalo and Rochester there are sixteen lift bridges, there is on additional lift bridge in Fairport, just the other side of Rochester proper. The Erie Canal that exists today is not the same that was originally built in 1825, in fact it was enlarged twice. The first time between the years 1835 and 1862 and the second time in 1918. Each time, the canal was widened and deepened to allow larger cargo vessels and in some places the path was changed, abandoning the previous incarnation. More modern technologies in 1918, allowed the canal to overlap with natural waterways that could now be controlled with the locks, control gates, dams and diversions. more...